Peer-reviewed article
Child Well-being and Economic Growth: A Cross Country Analysis
Humera Iram, Arshad Bhatti ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5-5This study looks at how child well-being relates to economic growth across 184 developed and developing countries between 1960 and 2020. It groups child well-being into four areas: health, education, nutrition, and access to water and sanitation. Using panel data and mediation/moderation analysis, it finds that child health, nutrition and education have a positive effect on economic growth. The direct effect of access to water and sanitation is negative, and this depends on the level of child health. The authors say the findings can help policymakers understand how different aspects of child well-being support equitable and sustainable growth.
Key points
- Panel data of 5-year averages for 184 countries covering 1960-2020.
- Child well-being grouped into four dimensions: health, education, nutrition, and water and sanitation.
- Child health, nutrition and education have a positive impact on economic growth.
- The direct impact of child access to water and sanitation on growth is negative, conditional on levels of child health.
- Estimation used seemingly unrelated regression for unbalanced panel data (Biorn, 2004).
Limitations
The abstract describes associations in cross-country data and does not evaluate a specific intervention. It gives no effect sizes, and it does not explain the negative water and sanitation result. The country hint of PK is not supported, since the study covers 184 countries without singling out Pakistan.
Abstract
This study investigates the relationship between various indicators of child well-being and economic growth. It groups indicators of child well-being into four key dimensions, namely child health, child education, child nutrition, and child access to water and sanitation. The study uses panel data of 5-year averages for 184 developed and under-developing countries for the period 1960-2020. It employs the mediation/ moderation analysis to examine the conditional direct and indirect effects of our composite measures of child well-being on growth. For estimation, we use the seemingly unrelated regression method for unbalanced panel data as developed by Biorn (2004). Our results show that child health, nutrition and education have a positive impact on economic growth. However, the direct impact of child access to water and sanitation is negative which is conditional on the levels of child health. The findings of this study can help policymakers to understand the role of different aspects of child well-being in building a solid foundation for more equitable and sustainable economic growth in the future.